


when it comes to luck you make your own

by suzukiblu



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Azula (Avatar)-centric, F/F, Firebending & Firebenders, Not Canon Compliant - The Legend of Korra, Not Compliant with Avatar Comics, Pre-Relationship, nonbender!Azula
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:33:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24665425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzukiblu/pseuds/suzukiblu
Summary: Azula was born lucky, they all say, except for one little thing.
Relationships: Azula & Zuko (Avatar), Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 31
Kudos: 737
Collections: My Favorite Atla Fics, One shots





	when it comes to luck you make your own

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Prim_the_Amazing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prim_the_Amazing/gifts).



> primtheamazing asked for either nonbender!Azula, banished!Azula, or Azula/Ty Lee. I decided to go for the hat trick. 
> 
> I continue to know very little about Korra and the comics, so we’re non-compliant as far as those go.

Azula was born lucky, they all say, except for one little thing. 

.

.

.

“It’s easy,” Zuko says when he’s five and she’s three, plucking the bright little flame out of the lantern and holding it out to her. Azula stares intently, then reaches for it. 

It burns. 

.

.

.

Everyone knows Prince Ozai’s children are a disappointment. There’s Zuko, who’s soft and emotional and useless and has no idea what it feels like to be burned, and Azula, who’s sharp and clever and the first member of the royal family to not be a firebender in _generations_. 

“You could put them together and still not have a worthy heir,” Azulon says more than once where even the servants can hear, and Azula _burns_. 

.

.

.

“Show me again,” Azula demands. 

“Azula,” Zuko says, giving her a frustrated look. “You’re just gonna get burned again.” 

“I won’t,” Azula says, ignoring the faint layers of scars on her hands that say otherwise. She’s tried to bend a hundred times, a _thousand_ times, and every time it ends up the same way, another new scar to mark her failure. Their mother frets over them constantly. Their father’s lip curls every time he sees them. She’s not sure which is worse; the pity or the disdain. 

She can do every move flawlessly, far better than Zuko and even better than some of the guards and almost as well as Lu _Ten_ , but no matter what, the fire just won’t _listen_ to her. 

.

.

.

“You shouldn’t be trying to keep up with us, Azula. You’re still too young,” Lu Ten says when he catches her watching him training Zuko, like he isn’t his father’s perfect heir and has any idea what it’s like to be a _disappointment_. Iroh has never looked at him with anything but pride, and everyone knows it. Lu Ten has never disappointed anyone, not even Azulon. 

Azula is a smear on Azulon’s _name_. 

He never even speaks to her. 

“I can do it,” she says. She’s not like Zuko. She’s not soft and emotional and _useless_. 

“You can’t,” Lu Ten says, terrible and gentle. 

Azula wishes he’d just _die_. 

.

.

.

Well. Her mother already thought she was a monster anyway. 

.

.

.

“You’re a disgrace,” Azula says when she finds Zuko crying in his room. She hasn’t cried once. Not about Lu Ten, or Mother, or anything. Why would she? 

“They’re _gone_ , Azula,” Zuko sobs, struggling to rein in his tears. Because he’s Zuko, he doesn’t manage it. 

At least she’s a better heir than _him_ , she thinks darkly. She’d be a thousand times better of a Fire Lord than Zuko ever could. 

But Zuko’s the one who can firebend, of course. Zuko’s the one who has no idea what it feels like to be burned. 

She hates him so _much_. 

But Azula hates everything, so Zuko’s not special. 

.

.

.

“Sorry about your cousin,” Mai says, and doesn’t say _sorry about your mother_ because she knows better. Everyone in the palace does. 

“Who cares?” Azula says scornfully. 

“Ummm, your uncle, definitely,” Ty Lee says, stretching her arms over her head and falling into a back walkover. “Right?” 

“He should’ve taught him to fight better, then,” Azula says. 

“I thought Lu Ten was a _good_ fighter,” Ty Lee says with a little frown as she straightens back up, and he was, of course. Lu Ten was so good that he could bend lightning; so good that his fire was practically _blue_. 

“Obviously not good enough,” Azula says dismissively, turning her head away. 

If she were allowed anywhere near the war, she wouldn’t die. If she could firebend, she’d bend lightning like it was _nothing_. She’d be a once in a generation genius. She’d bring down Ba Sing Se all by _herself_. She’d—

“I guess,” Ty Lee says, looking uneasy. 

Azula doesn’t care. 

.

.

.

Azula stays up late in her room with her little bedside lantern, sitting on her bed with her eyes fixed on the flame. Zuko doesn’t own a lantern. He doesn’t need one. 

She hates him. 

She can do it. She _has_ to be able to do it. Every other royal in the line of Sozin is or was a firebender, even their soft-handed _mother_ was a firebender, and there’s no reason for Azula to be any different. She’s exactly what their father wants her to be otherwise, she’s better than Zuko in every other way. She refuses to believe he’s defeated her in this. 

_She’s_ a worthy heir. 

She is, and she’s going to prove it. 

.

.

.

Azula burns her hands. 

She smashes the lantern, and the bedroom curtains go up in flames. 

.

.

.

“It was an accident,” Zuko says to their father, standing between him and Azula and her burned hands, and Azula _hates_ him. She wishes _he_ were the one with burned hands and a smoke-stained, scorched bedroom; wishes he hadn’t been the one to rush in and put the fire out while the servants had been screaming. 

_She_ should be the firebender. Zuko should be the useless one. 

He’s _always_ the useless one, except when something’s burning and Azula can’t put it out. 

“Don’t waste my time again,” Father says, walking right past them, and Azula still hates everything. 

.

.

.

Azula stays up late in Zuko’s room with a lantern. 

It still doesn’t work. 

.

.

.

“Azula?” Ty Lee says tentatively, peeking around the edge of Zuko’s door at her. Azula ignores her. Ty Lee’s stupid, but she’s smart enough not to ask about her bandaged hands, which quite a few people so far haven’t been. Azula wanted to hit them all so _badly_ , but a Fire royal doesn’t hit anyone, they _burn_ them. 

Azula can’t burn anyone except herself. 

“We were looking for you,” Ty Lee says, slipping into the room and onto the bed beside her. If she actually tries to make her feel better, Azula’s going to smash another lantern, and _not_ on the floor this time. “Mai found some new shuriken in the armory. Do you want to see?” 

“I don’t care about weapons,” Azula sneers. “I’m not _Zuko_.” 

“Okay,” Ty Lee says, tugging nervously at her braid. “Are you sure? We were gonna sneak onto the training grounds and use the targets.” 

“The training grounds?” Azula asks, pausing briefly. It’s been a while since she went to the training grounds. The guards probably know some new firebending moves by now. 

“Yeah!” Ty Lee says with an eager nod. 

“Only if Zuko doesn’t come,” Azula says. 

“I think he’s with your uncle,” Ty Lee says. 

“Good,” Azula says, and Ty Lee takes one of her burned hands very carefully and they go to the training grounds. 

.

.

.

“Don’t stand there, Ty Lee,” Mai says, and Ty Lee hops out of the way and Mai whips a hand out so fast that even Azula’s impressed, and the target rocks as her new shuriken hit dead-center. A Fire royal doesn’t need weapons, but Mai isn’t a Fire royal, and she’s very good with them. 

“You’re getting better at that,” Azula says speculatively. Mai is too good to waste on the army, in fact, but Azula knows she’s going to have use for her one of these days, the same as Ty Lee. 

“It’s not boring,” Mai says with a dismissive shrug. A few squads of guards cross the far end of the training grounds, and Azula looks after them as they begin their warm-ups. They’re new; they’re not doing anything she doesn’t already know how to do better. 

Azula’s form is perfect. If she could firebend . . . 

She glowers at the guards, every last one of them a peasant or civilian and every last one of them a firebender, then looks back to Mai and Ty Lee. Ty Lee’s edged in closer to her while she wasn’t looking, like she always does. If Azula weren’t used to it, she’d probably have accidentally hit her by now. 

“Well, we wouldn’t want you to get bored,” she says. Ty Lee bounces in place, and Mai smirks. They both know when she’s coming up with something interesting to do. 

.

.

.

The servants end up in a tizzy, the guards have to do extra drills, Zuko gets in trouble, and Azula feels a little better. 

.

.

.

She’s the better heir, and one day she’s going to prove it. 

.

.

.

“Azula, he’s going to get mad,” Zuko says warily. 

“Maybe at _you_ ,” Azula says haughtily. She may be a disappointment, but she’s more useful than Zuko. Their father knows that. Obviously. 

Everyone knows that, after all. 

_“Azula,”_ Zuko says, and Azula ignores him and sneaks into the war room. 

He follows her, the idiot. 

It all goes so, so wrong. 

.

.

.

“Azula,” their uncle says gently. Azula doesn’t look at him. He’s next to Zuko, so of course she doesn’t. 

Zuko is _so_ stupid. Everyone knows Azula can’t fight an Agni Kai. So if he could substitute for her, who did he think was going to substitute for that general? 

So, so stupid. 

“This is not your fault,” their uncle says. Azula laughs at him. 

“Of course it’s not,” she says scornfully. “ _Zuko’s_ the idiot.” 

“It is neither of your faults,” their uncle says. Azula glares at him. Zuko is still unconscious, laying still and silent in his bed. There are bandages over his eye. Mai is sitting beside him, holding his hand and not saying a word. 

Well, Azula’s not the only one who knows what it’s like to be burned anymore, is she. 

“Who cares?” she says. “So he got a little hurt. _I’m_ the one being punished.” 

“I will come with you,” their uncle says, and Azula laughs again, bitter and sharp. Like she even wants that? Like she even _cares_? 

“I’m not taking you,” she says. “I don’t need your help. I’ll find the Avatar on my own, and Father will be proud.” 

“Azula, the Avatar is . . .” 

“The Avatar is _mine_ ,” Azula hisses darkly, and stalks out of the room. 

.

.

.

Azula looks up at the pathetic excuse for a ship and crew that is, unfortunately, the best she could get and steels herself. She can do this. She’s so much better than Zuko, and so much better than anyone else who’s tried this. Her father knows that. 

He does. 

She’ll find the Avatar in no time at all, and bring them back in chains. 

The crew bustles about onboard. Azula prepares to board and leave the Fire Nation for the first time in her life. 

Not the last time. 

She hears footsteps run up behind her, and she turns. Ty Lee is standing there with a bag, breathing heavily like she’s been running for a while. It takes a lot of running to get Ty Lee out of breath, Azula knows. 

“I’m coming with you!” Ty Lee blurts, hitching her bag up higher on her shoulder. 

“Obviously,” Azula says as evenly as she can, like hearing that didn’t just shake something in her. She turns away and heads up the gangplank, and Ty Lee hurries after. 

Azula refuses to look back at her. 

She’s following her. That’s enough.

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr!](http://suzukiblu.tumblr.com/)


End file.
